


Hold Back the River

by AssoverTeakettle



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alpha Uchiha Itachi, Alpha Yamato | Tenzou, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Beta Uchiha Shisui, M/M, Omega Hatake Kakashi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:54:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28062759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AssoverTeakettle/pseuds/AssoverTeakettle
Summary: A series of scenes about Kakashi, Itachi, Tenzou, and Shisui coming together as an unlikely family to protect the Uchiha clan from their own pride through the most dreaded Shinobi power of all: politics. And along the way, they will find others who love them enough to stand with them.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Uchiha Itachi, Hatake Kakashi/Uchiha Shisui, Hatake Kakashi/Yamato | Tenzou, Uchiha Itachi/Uchiha Shisui, Uchiha Itachi/Yamato | Tenzou, Uchiha Shisui/Yamato | Tenzou
Comments: 32
Kudos: 124





	1. Trust in Desperate Times

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: In this fic, Kakashi is still 8 years older than Itachi, but no massacre has happened (or will). Itachi is 18, Shisui is 19, Tenzou is 24, and Kakashi is 26. 
> 
> Yes, there is an age gap because i wanted to play with that as a source of insecurity and difficulty for the characters. This is also why I aged everybody up. 
> 
> This will not be a full story. More likely than not it will be pieces of an AU set in this scenario or branching from this base scenario, as I find inspiration for it. If you couldn’t tell from all the other fics on here if it ain’t a one shot it’s also not complete yet. So...just be aware! This is more likely to be smaller snippets or specific moments/ scenes on an irregular basis.

  


  


“I ask for trust. It is a lot, I know; it isn't easy to give. But it is all I ask.”  
― Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Hawksong

  


  


Kakashi stands at the edge of the more cultivated training grounds that border the wilder forests of the survival training grounds beyond. Technically it’s a wilderness training area for shinobi, but the terrain is difficult enough to be suitable for a marriage hunt and is as safe and secure as any of these events can be, tucked into the village like it is. 

To the east, the sun is just beginning to crest over the hills surrounding Konoha, too early for it to do anything for the cold. Kakashi shivers as he watches it gild the edges of trees and the roofs of the houses behind them in pale golds and amber. 

Around him ten other unmated omegas mill around their scents a muddle of excitement and nerves. They’re all dressed in thin cotton yukatas and simple straw sandals and they’ve had any personal items removed. 

It’s a small gathering this year, but to be fair, with Sarutobi raising the age requirement for participants to eighteen it’s not surprising. 

Not far from them, at most a couple of yards away, the group of alphas and betas are likewise shifting around. They’re dressed much the same, in simple thin cotton and serviceable sandals. The only difference being the small pouches they carry with the haoris or obis for any potential omega they catch. There are more than double the number of hunters to the number of runners and Kakashi can’t help the way that makes him stiffen.

  


...

  


Still in his Anbu regs, Kakashi had returned from his last mission liberally splattered with blood and so drained of chakra it felt like he was seeing in shades of gray. 

The Sandaime had taken his mission report with a wry smile. 

“Mission status?”

Kakashi had clenched the muscles in his legs to combat his trembling muscles. “Complete, Sandaime,” he said. 

“Well done,” with a glance to the other two Anbu from Kakashi’s team, the Sandaime dismissed them. “You’ve done well, take some time to rest, we will contact you when we have another mission for you.”

As they shuffled to leave, Kakashi turned to follow them pausing when he heard the Sandaime clear his throat pointedly. 

“One moment, Hound.”

Turning back to the Sandaime, Kakashi blinked. 

“Is there something else, sir?” The ceramic hound mask usually wasn’t a problem but the damp humidity of his own stale breath and the lingering dizziness made it worse. _Gods, he couldn't wait to get to his bed, rip the masks off and finally sleep_.

Getting up from behind the desk, Sarutobi came around and shuffled to a pair of chairs to the side of the room. A teapot was still steaming from the spout and two worn ceramic cups sat waiting. He gestured for Kakashi to follow and he did.

He’d been forced to use the sharingan in the battle and as usual he was flagging badly now in the aftermath. Kakashi could feel the way he was weaving as he walked. Trying to keep his back as straight and stiff as he could, Kakashi eased himself into the chair across from Sarutobi. 

The transition from walking to sitting brought a rush of blood through him and left him blinking away dark spots from his vision. 

_Well shit._ He would have to move a little slower from here on if he didn’t want to do something embarrassing like faint. Or worse, be shuffled to the hospital. 

The Sandaime poured them each a cup of green tea. The pleasant smell cleared out some of Kakashi’s nose. Pushing his ceramic mask up just enough to reveal his mouth, Kakashi breathed in the steam and sighed with pleasure. 

Sarutobi’s absent smile tightened around the stem of his pipe. He sighed and Kakashi's shoulders stiffened minutely.

“What is it?” Kakashi asked.

With a shuffle of cloth and paper, Sarutobi took a scroll from inside his sleeve and pushed it across to Kakashi.

The scroll was official looking. The edges sealed in the red of fire, the paper new. The stamp on the outside marked it as official business of the Konoha Council.

Kakashi could smell the components in the ink. It must have been very, very recently made. 

Even as Kakashi reached for it, his heart sank.

Sarutobi took his pipe in his hand and sighed, “This was not my decision, Kakashi. I apologize, I know this will be...unwelcome at best.” Sarutobi grimaced and grit his teeth.

Swallowing hard, Kakashi unrolled the edge of the scroll. It was an official notice from the Council of Konoha calling upon the head of the Hatake clan.

Kakashi had been a clan head since his father had killed himself when he was a child. His duties in Anbu typically meant he was unavailable for clan meetings, clan orders, or council politics but apparently his luck had run out. As he skimmed the terms of the ‘call’ his eyes widened and what had been trepidation turned to nausea. 

The scroll opened to read: ‘The council of Konoha hereby calls upon the Hatake clan to uphold its vows to the village. To protect, to serve, to proliferate and multiply.'

Kakashi’s voice was a dried husk in his throat. 

“What...does this...mean? I _have_ upheld my clan vows.”

He had upheld these vows for years, he’d sacrificed loved ones, hopes and dreams, and of late, himself over and over again. He had save for the last pillar.

_To proliferate and multiply._

He dragged his eyes to the Sandaime. “I don’t...understand,” he whispered, hoarse. 

The Sandaime’s wizened face creased with something like pity.

”I’m sorry, Kakashi,” he said, “I tried to dissuade them but you are twenty-six now and the last of your clan.” He shrugged and sighed heavily. “They wouldn’t hear of delaying it any longer. And I was outvoted. I did fight to make sure you had options,” he said gesturing to the rest of the scroll. 

With numb fingers, Kakashi opened the scroll further. It was a full contractual agreement, considered signed and sealed by the vows the clans had made to Konoha in days gone by for their descendants to uphold in perpetuity. This particular one had been modernized some. 

The traditional options like marriage contracts, marriage hunts, and the like were listed first, as was typical. And below that in itemized bullets were other options like artificial insemination, or surrogate mothers. 

None of them were any kind of comfort.

With his ancient eyes, Sarutobi had simply stared back at him in his office. Both of them at a loss.

Finally, the Sandaime had looked to the table between them, releasing Kakashi from the weight of his gaze. “You have two weeks to decide what you would like to do, per the Clan Accords. You can either let me know and I can pass it on to our matrons in the fertility wards of the hospital, or you can do so yourself. You will also need to publicly file the choice you make for clan records.

Kakashi had stumbled out of his superior’s office, exhausted and numb and sick to his bones.

Tenzou, steadfast and understanding Tenzou, had found him later in his apartment shaking on the bathroom floor, still clutching the damned scroll. 

Wordlessly, he had gathered Kakashi up and guided him to his nest. He’d wrapped him in blankets and had curled up around him, one arm wrapped around his waist, the other under his neck to support him as they curled together like quotation marks. 

When dawn had broken, curls of pearly blue and gray lightening the dark outside, Tenzou had finally asked, “Senpai, what do you want to do?”

A hysterical bark of laughter had burst out of Kakashi even as he buried his face in the blankets. _Everything hurt._

The vision of a child, his child, borne by someone else, a surrogate, was untenable. Kakashi would easily admit he would be a horrible choice for a functioning parent but the thought of his child, _his child_ never knowing his name, never being a part of his life burned like acid through his chest.

Artificial insemination might be bearable. But he’d seen what Konoha’s council would sanction for lesser things. They would absolutely choose the other donor to suit their needs and what would that mean? Would he even be allowed to keep it?

And it could happen tomorrow. If he chose that he would walk into the clinic in two weeks and they would keep attempting the process until it took. The image of himself in a sterile hospital, his body rounding with an immediate pregnancy conceived via a hospital funded and overseen by the Council sent shivers up his spine.

And he would have to do it alone.

Tenzou’s question sat heavy and grotesque in the room. A gargoyle on Kakashi’s chest. 

_What will you do?_

A sob tore itself out of his chest and he choked on his breath, “I don’t know.” The panic dug claws into the insides of his ribs and _heaved._ Kakashi couldn’t help the tears. His breathing faltered and broke and he twisted to hide himself in the blankets. “I don’t know,” he cried.

Tenzou’s grip on him tightened. He bore down on him through his tears, gripped him tight through his shivering and trembling, rolling nearly halfway over him as if to shield him from the coming day.

His kouhai, all green leaves and the spice of bark, hummed into Kakashi’s ear as his sobbing slowed. “I’m sorry, Senpai. We’ll figure something out.” 

It wasn’t until five days later, with Tenzou squinting at the scroll that he offered an possible solution.

“Senpai?”

Distracted still, Kakshi had busied himself making stir fry for them both. “Hmm?” 

Tenzou spoke slow, and thoughtfully. “Senpai,” he began, “if you agree to a marriage hunt, it doesn’t say anywhere in here that you have to be successfully married or…” he flushed and stuttered, “uh...bred by the end of the hunt.” 

Kakashi stilled by the stove and looked over to his Kouhai. 

Tenzou cleared his throat and ignored his lingering flush. 

“You could, according to this,” he said, waving the scroll around, “sign up for a marriage hunt and if no one catches you there’s no penalty written in here. It sounds as though you just have to agree to make yourself available in one.” Tenzou’s gaze was still cautious, not the blind optimism or victorious glint a cockier ninja might have. But he was sure enough to voice it, which for Tenzou said a lot. 

“It might give you some delay.” He smiled, a tiny wry thing, “After all who could really hope to catch you in a hunt?” 

The vice that had been clamped around Kakashi’s heart eased a little. Enough to breathe again. 

“That’s...that’s a good idea. Thank you, Tenzou.”

Tenzou’s smile was simple and warm. Unassuming but more reassuring than anyone else in Kakashi’s life could hope to be at this moment. 

“Of course,” he said.

He looked down and chuckled, “If you wanted we could attempt some further safety in this too. I could join the hunt as well and focus on shadowing you. No one would notice if a root or two tripped someone at an opportune moment. And I don’t exist in most official capacities.”

Kakashi couldn’t swallow around the tightness in his throat. He didn’t dare blink with the added sheen to his vision now.

Staring at the stove, the vegetables slowly simmering, he managed, “You wouldn’t...mind? Doing that?” 

The two of them had been casually helping one another through heats and ruts for years now. Both of them intimately aware of their own inability to be truly open with someone not a part of their lives in Anbu. 

And while Orochimaru’s experiments had left Tenzou infertile, it didn’t mean he didn’t also benefit from the arrangement. 

They were safer together. They understood one another in a way that few others could anymore.

Tenzou’s hands were warm and strong on his elbows where he stood behind him now. They drifted up to his shoulders and down to his hips, pulling them together in Kakashi’s tiny kitchen. 

He nuzzled the side of Kakashi’s neck, simultaneously leaving a hint of his own scent and picking up some of Kakashi’s. He planted a quick kiss to the top knob of Kakashi’s spine and shook his head. His lips moving back and forth on Kakashi’s nape. 

“No, Senpai. Of course not,” he said. He squeezed Kakashi to him, firm and steady. 

“You shouldn’t be alone for this. So if you want me to be there, I will be.”

  


...

  


So. Here they are now. 

Kakashi can see Tenzou with the alphas and betas on the other side of the meeting spot. His dark hair and brown eyes working against Kakashi to hide him from view. 

With his heightened senses Kakashi can still smell him though. A deep note of green and warmth that matches the forest ahead of them. 

The other omegas are gathering up at the entrance to the wooded training ground and Kakashi follows a step behind. One of the proctors is handing out cups of tea to the waiting runners. Another is doing the same for the hunters.

Kakashi’s nose wrinkles beneath his mask and even as he accepts the cup he plots to dump it when no one is looking. He’s smelled similar teas on missions abroad and he knows what it does. He’s also not technically required to drink it, it’s just offered to make things _easier_ for when it counts today. 

Marriage hunts now are a lot more emphatic about the consent of both parties than they were even in their parents’ generation, but it's still rooted in some very traditional ideas. And basic biology means that outside of a heat most omegas aren’t quite as ready and rearing to go as an alpha or beta. As the other omegas drink it, blowing on the top of the steaming liquid to cool it, Kakashi can already smell the way it makes their scents open up in the cold air. 

In the minutes before the hunt begins, the omegas begin to smell sweet and ready in a way that’s hard to describe beyond basic hind-brain instincts. 

_No thanks._

As they begin to stretch and warm up cold muscles one of the proctors claps his hands from the front of the gathered participants. 

“Gather round please!”

The proctor gives them all an unamused glare before beginning. 

“Alright, the usual rules apply. Runners, your goal is to evade the alphas and the betas. Hunters, your goal is to capture the omega of your choosing. Taijutsu is allowed, provided any strikes are meant to hinder or capture more than they are to harm. There should be no broken bones by the end of this!” He glares around at the gathered faces, lip curling at some of the more alphas who have been posturing around more than others. 

“Control yourselves,” he growls. “There will be eight supervisors in the area at all times to ensure no one decides to live out any cave-man fantasies. Do not shame us, do not shame yourself.”

He straightens up and clenches his jaw, “You have ten hours to evade or to catch. The end of which, horns will be sounded and all of you will return to this point. Any medical needs will be addressed as needed.” 

The sun is several degrees higher in the sky by the time he’s gone through the entire list of regulations. 

Kakashi doesn’t allow any of it to linger with him for long. He knows that none of these would-be hunters are going to have any luck with him. He’s always been a survivor, for better or for worse, this is nothing. 

As the proctor drones on, Kakashi looks over to Tenzou where he’s been standing patiently among the alphas and betas. With Tenzou so politely absorbed there isn’t much chance of any commiserating looks and Kakashi’s eyes wander the group. 

He freezes and checks again, searching wildly for a moment before he finds two familiar heads of dark hair.

Shisui and Itachi are among the group of hunters. And for how giddy some of the others are these two are nearly grim. 

It only lasts for a moment, but Shisui glances over and meets Kakashi’s gaze. 

He seems surprised. He turns and nudges Itachi and Kakashi instinctively prickles at the attention. Both of them are staring now. 

Kakashi doesn’t glare, per se, that’s a little beneath his dignity as their field captain for nearly eight years now, but he does take a moment to thin his eye at the pair of them. 

Shisui winces and seems to be laughing, typical. 

Whereas Itachi drops his head instinctively, surprised and a little uncomfortable, but his gaze doesn’t stray from Kakashi. There’s something weighing in those dark eyes. Kakashi goes still. He’s seen Itachi evaluate battlefields with this same intent focus.

Shisui is one of the fastest ninja in the village. Kakashi would know he’s been watching him work for years now. Itachi is no slouch either. From the way the two of them stay grouped up in all the confusion his best guess is that Shisui must be working with Itachi today. A paired set of hunters, typically a beta and alpha pair that agree to hunt together to share the omega. It’s a traditional start to a triad engagement.

Kakashi has faced his own death and by now the death of his comrades countless times and his stomach still drops despite himself. 

He feels sick. 

_Goddamn it._

“Omegas,” the proctor looks to Kakashi’s group and nods to the gate, “Take your places at the gate.”

  


...

  


As the omegas line up at the gate to the wilderness training grounds Kakashi stands among them like a stone in a stream, they mingle and dart around him like fish. 

Never, in the history of Kakashi’s adult life, has he ever taken part in a marriage hunt to Itachi’s knowledge. Not that Itachi or Shisui have either, but with eight years between them, other ninja Kakashi’s age have either taken part in a marriage hunt or flat-out gotten married at this point. In the last ten years that he’s worked on and off with Kakashi there’s always been a mission and Kakashi has never been in the village during a hunt. 

Something must have changed, Itachi muses. For all Kakashi has seemingly tried to run away from it his entire life he is the last of a once powerful clan. Maybe he wasn’t given a choice by the Council this time. 

The Uchiha are a larger clan in the village, they typically face the Council in struggles of power or of blame. 

Kakashi as the last of his line and twenty-six must have been pressured to finally put out. 

The thought of that makes Itachi’s stomach curdle. He can’t remember the last time he lived outside of the Council’s shadow. He’s used to it now, the sting is less each time they lean their weight on him, but he imagines this entire charade has Kakashi choking on the bitterness of it all. 

The problem is, if Kakashi is participating, then this foolhardy scheme of theirs may have actual merit. _If_ they can pull it off. 

At his shoulder, Shisui turns away from Kakashi’s glare with a chuckle. He elbows Itachi with a grin. “Nice to see the captain hasn’t lost any of his charming attitude” he jokes, and pauses at the look on Itachi’s face.

The proctor gives the signal and the omegas are off into the forests beyond the gate, their pale yukata’s flickering like moths through the dense trees. Kakashi is, of course, swifter than the rest, two steps in and he flings both of the death-trap sandals off his feet with contempt before taking to the branches of the trees. 

Itachi can hear Shisui swallow, “So...pretty sure he’d murder us in our nuptial bed if we attempted what I think you’re thinking of.”

Blinking, Itachi turns to his friend, “Hmm?”

Shisui waits for a moment, bouncing on his heels with something like nonchalance before he blanches. 

“We’re not right?!” He whispers hoarsely.

When Itachi doesn’t say anything Shisui’s voice climbs an octave. His whispering approaching shrill.

“Itachi are you serious?!”

The proctor begins moving through the alphas and betas, checking off singles and pairs who are hunting together. 

“Why not?” Itachi murmurs. 

Shisui boggles at him and grimaces, “Lots of reasons! Because he’ll be ridiculously hard to catch, he’ll be pissed if we even try and he finds out we were gunning for him, and...c’mon Itachi,” he whines. “I would like my captain to stay my captain. He won’t be if we do catch him and if we fail he’ll drop us from his squad faster than a couple of hot potatoes.”

A week prior, Itachi had tried to speak to the clan council and his father had shut him out completely.

Fugaku’s voice was stern and cold as a glacier, “You are not an admitted part of this council meeting. Go home, Itachi.”

Itachi closed his mouth with a snap. Eyes wide. 

His father stood in front of him, blocking the entrance to the Clan meeting. Itachi _knew_ , had witnessed his clan beginning to plot against Konoha. He’d heard it in hushed aborted whispers since he was twelve. It had escalated and now he finally was old enough to have some say in it! 

Since the Kyuubi attack and the rumors that had surrounded the Uchiha things had escalated beyond any reasonable control. They were being watched by their own black ops and they knew it. 

It all just made everything worse and he had heard whispers throughout the compound of more than just passive dissent. 

He _had_ to be at that meeting. He _needed_ to speak to them, to try and sway those who were still undecided. He _had_ to. 

“I don’t understand,” he said, “I-I’m eighteen now. I’m an adult by civilian and shinobi standards. Why am I not allowed to participate in the Clan meetings?”

Fugaku frowned down at him, arms crossed. 

“You are an adult,” he allowed, “However, to carry a vote in clan matters you must be a clan council member and to be that you need to be married as well as a member of the main branch.” He turned, drawing up the seals for silence and protection within the council halls he had just turned Itachi away from, a clear dismissal. 

And Itachi had been left to wildly look for alternatives. 

And here he was, in line for a marriage hunt with Shisui. 

“Itachi and Shisui Uchiha, you’re paired today, correct?” The proctor’s question drags Itachi back to the present. 

“I — yes.”

The proctor turns to Shisui, “You’re hunting as his second then? Hoping for a triad?”

Shisui turns the wattage up on his grin, “You got it!”

The proctor notes something on his clipboard and nods them towards the gate where some of the others have been sent as well, “Go ahead and line up, we’re almost ready for you to head out after them.”

As they approach, Itachi reaches out and grasps Shisui’s hand, “I have to try, Shisui. Getting married to someone here through a hunt is one way to get past the family’s power games but you know they’ll undercut its legitimacy if it isn’t a good match.”

“Hatake is the last of a powerful clan known for its _loyalty_. I couldn’t do much better, even if I was looking for a wife through a matchmaker and I…”

The image of Sasuke’s face comes and Itachi swallows hard. “I have to try for them, Shisui. I can’t not.”

Shisui takes this in as the last of their group lines up at the starting line. HIs normally jovial eyes dark and sombre. 

“Alright, alright,” he sighs and turns to throw a smile Itachi’s way, cocksure and daring now that he’s decided. “Let’s do this. Let’s hunt our very scary captain to save our clan.”

  


...

  


As the hunters are released into the training area Tenzou takes to the shadows of the trees as do the others who spend their working hours as shinobi. 

He keeps to the edges, he finds the middle of the pack and lets them branch out. He gave Kakashi a seed with his chakra in it before they even arrived at the gate this morning. With it, he can sense his friend's location and speed. He'll need it. Even with the limits placed on hunts to focus on physical prowess over ninjutsu or genjutsu, Kakashi is an incredible tracker and hunter. 

Without that seed Tenzou is fully aware that he could very easily loose track of Kakashi. Especially in a wide area over the course of ten hours. 

As they run he keeps a cautious eye out for any who may be turning in Kakashi's direction. 

He doesn't expect anyone to try, after all, Kakashi does have an incredibly impressive reputation. 

Given how traditional the people at these hunts can be, Tenzou is fairly certain that most would-be alpha-husbands would rather find one of the softer, more home-body omegas in the group. He can smell where they have gone more easily and for the most part, the alphas and betas split off for their trails in eager groups. 

All save two. 

Tenzou watches with some dismay as Shisui and Itachi blaze towards Kakashi's trail. Both of them with their eyes lit blood red. 

They disappear ahead of him into the brush, swift as shadows. 

Tenzou picks up his own pace and follows, maintaining a steady distance.


	2. Frightened into Taking Root

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Making the best of a bad situation, Itachi and Kakashi both have to make some hard decisions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be forewarned, this is dub-con at best given the situation the characters are in. I wouldn't classify it as non-con but it does skate the line for both of them mentally so be warned and be careful with yourselves if that's a concern. <3

  


  


“The question then is, how much are you willing to give?"

And I answered, "Anything."

― Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Hawksong 

  


  


All omegas carry a hint of sweetness, Kakashi is no different. 

The difference is that the other omegas left a trail of scent behind them that sits rich and heavy on the tongue. Kakashi’s scent is sweet like fresh water is sweet. 

Shisui and Itachi have been closing the gap between them for nearly an hour, pacing themselves to overtake Kakashi. He’s close enough now that his scent is in the air, not just lingering markers on branches and stone. 

There’s a flicker of movement ahead and Itachi’s head snaps to it. He can feel the tell-tale strain of his sharingan as it activates, calculating every blown leaf and spark of sunlight as he runs. 

_There!_

He can just see Kakashi about ten yards ahead of them. 

With a quick glance Itachi’s way, Shisui puts on a burst of speed, his chakra blazing. His incredible speed flashing him to land just in front of Kakashi, cutting him off. 

Kakashi stalls on his branch and Itachi uses the moment of surprise to crash into him from behind. A split-second later Tenzou slams into Shisui. Both pairs tumble off the tree branch, free-falling to the ground. Even caught off-footed, Kakashi is vicious in Itachi’s arms. The subtle sweetness of before is right underneath Itachi’s nose now. The whipcord strength against him does more for Itachi than he’d imagined it would. 

There’s no softness to Kakashi, not outside of his scent. And for all that Itachi has caught him now as an omega he’s known his captain’s gender for years. Before today he’s always associated that dry clear scent with danger, strength. Safety too. 

As the ground hurtles towards them they both rip away from their grapple hold to land on their feet. 

Tenzou and Shisui land on the other side of the tree. Itachi can hear the crackle and mad rustling as they plummet through the understory before a loud _thud_. 

“OOF!”

“What do you think you’re doing?” Tenzou hisses. 

There’s another mad scramble and Itachi just barely sees Shisui rocket back into the forest, both hands gripping Tenzou like he’s been welded to him. 

“Good luck!” He yelps and zips away, dragging Tenzou with him. 

That will only hold Tenzou back for so long. Itachi and Shisui both know from experience. Itachi turns back to his captain, muscles spring-loaded. He’ll have to make this quick, he thinks, and tries to bury the way that makes his insides squirm. 

Kakashi’s yukata has ridden up a little in their fall, revealing long pale legs scattered with scars. 

Itachi tries to breathe through his mouth to clear his head. _This is ridiculous, I’ve literally bathed in the same river with him on missions and never been distracted like this._ Somehow, in this moment, even Kakashi’s bare feet seem indecent. His heart is pounding loud in his ears. _He can’t stop focusing on these stupid things!_

He’s never...been with anyone before. Not like _that_. He knows others his age have. He knows Shisui has. Itachi has never done anything like this. He was hoping Shisui could help him make this easier somehow. He knows that this is supposed to feel good, the whole thing, before and after. 

The knowledge that he will be _forcing_ himself on someone makes everything sour and poisonous. 

Itachi fights back a hard swallow. 

Before Kakashi can recover, Itachi lunges for him. 

The breeze from his movement prickles against Kakashi’s skin and he whips around to face Itachi. His lone eye wide. 

Itachi is too close to avoid entirely now. As Kakashi lifts a hand to fend Itachi off he uses the opportunity to snatch his wrist and shift his grip until he can squeeze hard enough to feel the tendons and bone underneath. There are glands there, secondary to the glands on the neck or inner thigh but the effect is similar. 

The smell in the clearing swells sharply. 

Kakashi gasps and falters before he rallies, hissing and lashing out at Itachi to get some distance again. 

A neighboring tree makes for another convenient shelter, as Kakashi crouches in the tangled mess of its roots. Itachi can see he’s panting for breath too by the movement of his shoulders, but he sounds irritatingly collected still. 

“If I’d known you carried such a torch for me I’d have let you down easy a long time ago, Itachi,” Kakashi says. It’s teasing, dripping with that practiced insouciance that is so typical of Kakashi. 

For someone who has been with Kakashi on missions for years, that’s as much of a tell as it is a bluff. Itachi has watched Kakashi use that same tone to gather his thoughts before completing a mission, to delay a fight long enough for another team member to complete the objective, even to give them time to create a distraction on a mission. 

It doesn’t do much to hide the calculating gleam in his eye. Or the size of his pupil as his gaze darts around. 

The combination of their scuffling and Itachi’s rough handling of Kakashi’s glands has left heavier traces of the two of them in the air in the clearing here. 

Itachi takes a deep breath and lets the oxygen fuel the sudden burn of the sharingan. He can’t use it for any genjutsu here, it would nullify any victory it might gain him. Although he can use it to close the gap in experience. 

Itachi prowls closer to his captain, knees and elbows kept slightly bent as he approaches. 

They exchange another lightning-fast flurry of blows. Trading grips on one another for debilitating punches and jabs only to slip away from one another again. 

Itachi and Kakashi are fairly evenly matched in their build and stamina. Neither one of them is a bruiser by any means, they typically do better with speed and accuracy. 

It will come down to who lasts longer or who catches a better grip on the other. 

Kakashi flips backwards, dancing out of range and stops crouched. He’s panting now, Itachi can hear it even several paces apart from one another. 

“You are _very_ desperate.” He tilts his head and Itachi is reminded of a hawk, his single eye focused and alert, “Why is that, Itachi?”

“Isn’t everyone desperate on a marriage hunt? Especially when there are so few omegas to begin with?” Itachi circles the clearing. Better for Kakashi to think anything but the truth, the whole point of this is to circumvent the confrontation that _could_ be. Kakashi with his loyalty to the village could turn them in. He might not want to but Itachi knows he would if pressed. 

Across from him, Kakashi seamlessly mirrors him. 

Kakashi hums noncommittal, “Hmm…somehow I doubt that’s the reason.” His dark eye sharpens on Itachi’s face, “You’ve never shown any interest in anyone before, not for something like this. Certainly, never with me. I’m too old for you and too risky a choice besides. If you actually wanted an easy victory you would have gone for anyone but me...so why?”

He pauses and raises his head a little, focused on some other sense as he considers Itachi. 

“You’re not aroused enough for this, even with what they give everyone.” His gaze returns to Itachi’s eyes now, fearless, “So why, Itachi? Come on, tell me.”

Kakashi’s scent seems to stick to Itachi’s lungs. Heat curls through him from his belly to his lungs. That tea from the start of the hunt is there, Itachi can feel the way it’s lighting his nerve endings up, sensitizing him. But even that can’t disguise the roil of his stomach. 

Itachi tries to subtly wipe the sweat from his palms onto his pants. 

He talked big to Shisui earlier and he meant everything he said. This is a last ditch effort and he’ll do everything he can to make this work but this is still his _Anbu captain_ in front of him. He’s never had to go toe-to-toe with Kakashi outside of sparring and he’s had years of serving under him on missions to have more than a little healthy respect for his fighting style.

The scent of Kakashi keeps building in the close quarters of the clearing, the wind of the chase no longer dispersing it across the entire forest. 

With their fight, Itachi can tell his eyes are fixating on these little details on Kakashi now. The slide of a bead of sweat from his armpit to his elbow. The piece of grass stuck to the fabric of Kakashi’s mask, fluttering with his breath. 

“I _am_ desperate, Senpai.”

  


…

  


Itachi’s hands are shaking. He’s bone pale and sweating. 

In a strange way this Itachi is like the Itachi he has always known and nothing like him at all. Small, brilliant, Itachi, who told Kakashi on watch on one of their first missions, ‘I would have liked to learn more medical jutsu but, well, as the oldest son it wouldn’t be considered appropriate.’

The young man who hand-reared a raven fledgling he’d found, fallen from its nest. 

But he’s never, ever, been the kind of person to fly off on a half-cocked plan. Never for a mission and certainly never for his own personal gain. 

Not something like this. 

Kakashi tilts his head at his younger teammate and tries again. When he speaks he takes care to speak soothingly, “Come on, Itachi. _Clearly_ you want me involved one way or the other so just tell me what this is about.”

“I have to do this.”

The confession spills out of Itachi before he manages to clamp his jaw shut and Itachi stares at Kakashi in bewildered consternation.

Kakashi thins his eyes at Itachi. 

Even with the mask, Itachi can see the muscles pull as Kakashi’s lip curls. 

“You don’t _have_ to do anything. That’s a lie you tell yourself to make it easier,” he says, his words are crackling shards of ice between them.

Itachi’s face tightens and he seems to age ten more years in an instant.

“Yes, I do!”

Kakashi has never been one to roll over for his instincts if he can help it, but Itachi’s bared teeth and the sharp scent of him rising in the air makes the hair rise on the back of his neck.

  


...

  


When Kakashi moves to snap back at him again, Itachi hisses at him. 

“I have to make Clan council! They won’t even let me speak to them unless I’m married and there are things happening right now that can’t wait! I have to _try—!_ ” his voice breaks and he clenches his jaw around the rest. 

He won’t beg. He won’t. 

And as much as all of this is boiling inside his ribs he can’t apologize either. 

He isn’t sorry. He won’t be. Not if it means being sorry for trying to save Sasuke. Or any of the other Uchiha still blissfully unaware of what their shinobi clansmen are planning. 

He isn’t sorry. He has to try. 

“I need to buy some time and I can do that for them by doing this. If I wait to do this outside of a marriage hunt it’ll be too late. My family will find a matchmaker, there will be treaties and contracts, meaningless ceremonies — they’ll control all of it if i do this outside of a hunt.”

Kakashi is very still, frozen as he listens. 

“Why do you need more time? What’s happening?” His gaze sharpens and he pins Itachi in place with it. 

“What are they planning that puts the Uchicha clan so urgently in need of a new council member?”

There is no protection for proven or witnessed treason, planned or already completed doesn’t matter. Historically, it all ends the same way. Entire clans have been destroyed for less than what the Uchiha are planning. 

Itachi has seen it over and over again in the Shinobi world. He didn’t get into Anbu for being a fool. 

Kakashi’s eyes narrow, “Itachi...is this about the matter we spoke of when you joined Anbu?”

_A talk of treason...a coup._

Itachi can’t bring himself to say it but his silence does the same. His knuckles are white with tension. 

Kakashi’s breath escapes him in a hiss and the tension in his spine and his grip loosens some. 

Itachi swallows, his eyes fever-bright. He licks his dry lips, “I didn’t know you would be here, Kakashi. But you know what the Uchiha are like. They’re very proud. They’d question the legitimacy with anyone else, they’d question why I did it. Like you are, rightly so.”

“But if it's you, you’re the last of the Hatake, you’ve been my captain for years. None of them know better to question it.” 

“I’m trying to protect my clan from themselves and you are the best option I have.”

There’s a crash nearby and Tenzou and Shisui come careening through the clearing wildly exchanging taijutsu and snarling. In the chaos, Itachi drops low and leaps for the bole of a large tree, using it as a springboard to correct his trajectory, straight for his mentor. 

He feints as though to grab for Kakashi’s hands, at this point it's reasonable to assume any one of them may start flinging jutsus around. As Kakashi moves to disengage, Itachi spins until he can reach the glands on Kakashi’s neck instead. 

When they stop swinging, Itachi has his legs locked around Kakashi, immobilizing his hips and one hand gripping him tight by the hair on the back of his skull, his mouth sealed over the gland on the left side of his throat. Kakashi, in equal threat, has one arm bracing himself away from Itachi’s torso and the other is digging furrows into the skin of Itachi’s eyebrows, his fingers poised over his eyes. 

Kakashi snarls. It rattles through his chest. Itachi doesn’t budge. His long eye-teeth are pressed into Kakashi’s neck, a clear enough deterrent. One bite now and Uchiha eyes or not he would still have Kakashi.

Beneath him, Kakashi’s eye is wild. He’s breathing fast. “ _Don’t you dare,_ ” he hisses. His fingers tremble where he’s placed his hand on Itachi’s forehead, his nails split the skin above Itachi’s brow until blood trickles down Itachi’s face. 

Kakash’s breath is coming quick and short. 

Itachi’s never seen this in his captain, not even on missions when one or all of them nearly died. 

It’s a level of panic that’s entirely new, for all that Kakashi tries to hide it. The scent of it rises in the air, bitter and scorched over his natural sweetness. 

_I did that._ Itachi thinks. _This is because of me._

Itachi has killed plenty of people in his short lifetime already. He’s killed them to preserve the mission, to preserve Konoha, to protect his family, and his teammates. 

He’s never had to do something like _this_. 

With his grip tight on Kakashi’s skull, Itachi can feel his captain’s pulse pounding where his knuckles press into the side of his throat.

One of Itachi’s longer eyeteeth, bared and poised over Kakashi’s gland, slips as they struggle and breaks the protective barrier of his skin. The taste of iron, hot and bitter on his tongue is choking.

Kakashi makes a sound like a sob underneath him and Itachi _cannot do this_. 

Itachi’s head jerks up and away from Kakashi and he’s breathing too hard. His eyes have lost the sharingan and he squeezes them shut. 

He backs away from Kakashi, stiff and slow as an old man. 

Kakashi pulls his arms in, brings his legs together and takes a moment to calm his racing heart. 

Kakashi struggles to look away. He wants to disappear into the trees while Itachi is broken and hollow on the ground. 

He wants to grab him by his long hair and beat the shit out of him. 

He’s shaking and he’s hot and cold with fear and rage. He wants nothing more than to abandon this entire foolish day to this horrible sunny clearing. 

He _wants_ to. 

He wants to not be afraid of his diligent kouhai who wanted to heal people as a child and nursed birds back to health. His kouhai who is trying to heal something much larger between his clan and Konoha. His kouhai who tried to claim him against his will. 

With shaky hands, Kakashi pushes his hitae-ate off his forehead so he can see Itachi with more clarity. 

“Itachi. Itachi?”

He’s not moving anymore. The eighteen-year-old is kneeling in the dirt, every line of him exhausted and wan. He doesn’t even look at Kakashi.

He’s broken himself today, Kakashi thinks. Part of him understands that, knows what its like to suddenly realize you have sunk to new depths. Most of him is still too busy falling apart. 

“Itachi, look at me.”

When his eyes do drift up to Kakashi’s face they’re black as coal. The sharingan snuffed out. 

“Come here.”

Itachi’s forehead wrinkles, “...why?”

Kakashi doesn't immediately answer. He reaches out with one hand and gestures, “ _Come here._ ”

When Itachi reaches his side, moving like his joints are stiff, Kakashi reaches up with one hand and grips him by his nape. Before Itachi can jerk away, Kakashi hauls him down to sit next to him. 

He pulls Itachi down, like he did when Itachi was eleven and freshly made Anbu. Shivering and lost and covered in blood from his first assassination target. It’s a hold used by family, pack-mates or bonded pairs to reel a wandering alpha in and calm them down. 

Like swaddling a baby, or putting a hood on a hawk. 

Kakashi knows, objectively, that Itachi isn’t that child anymore. Itachi is just as much a weapon as Kakashi is, finely honed and made for the mission. But that lost look in his eyes is familiar. 

He’s seen it in his father near the end. He saw it in Rin as she leapt in front of his chidori.

Itachi sways on his knees and swallows hard. 

“Why was this your only option? What will you do if you won’t do this?” Kakashi asks. 

It’s a long time sitting in the clearing, both of them facing forward, their knees clamped together, hands locked together or locked on the other. 

All the muscles in his back and arms lock up his spine, strain his shoulders. 

Beside him, Itachi doesn’t shift at all. He speaks like he’s been carved from stone, like his father seems to be, Kakashi thinks. 

Itachi was never meant to be made of stone. It makes him brittle and hollow, weighed down by the secrets and fears he’s carrying. This close, Itachi can see the blue spidery lines of veins along his eyelids, his temples. 

“If go to the Sandaime it’s over for my clan. At the very least, they will be turned out from their lands, their power, which will only make things worse. At most...it’s treason...Kakashi. And it’s not _all_ of them. So many of them are civilians, they have no idea, the young ones too.”

Kakashi keeps his grip on Itachi’s nape and rubs along the knobs of his spine. 

He sighs. “Itachi, even if you could go through with this, that still wouldn’t guarantee you the victory you really want. At most it —”

“At most it delays things, I know, Kakashi,” Itachi says, cutting him off. 

That sparks Kakashi’s fraying temper again. He grinds his teeth and takes a deep breath. 

_He’s out of it just let it go,_ he tells himself.

He sighs and imagines all his trembling emotions, rage and fear being washed over and pulled out on the tide with his breath. 

_Just let it go, we have bigger problems. Priorities._

Kakashi doesn’t say anything else. He’s always been alone, his entire life. There is no larger clan, no distant aunts or uncles, no cousins playing in the street, no younger siblings, nothing. The Hatake clan estate has been empty and silent for his entire life. His only memories of it are memories of him and his father walking through a house too big for them. 

And later finding his father’s body staining the tatami. 

His clan is as good as gone. He doesn’t understand Itachi’s desperation, his wild chase today to claim any possibility at saving their future. 

Itachi is young but he’s not a child, as he has been so eager to point out. Neither of them had much time for things like ‘childhood’. Moving forward, however this plays out, Itachi will walking through it as a ninja of Konoha. He’s already in the game too deep. 

A bead of blood shifts on his neck from where Itachi’s tooth just barely broke skin and Kakashi shivers.

If Itachi had a sliver less of his moral code to hold him back Kakashi would already be claimed. 

_He was such an idiot._ Kakashi’s bones feel brittle and light and he has to bite his tongue to keep himself from gasping or drifting away. 

Itachi had caught him, Kakashi might have gotten his eyes but he would have been _owned_ by Itachi. It would have been over. And then we both would have been tied to partners we’d brutalized for life. 

Any hunt Kakashi accepts could end this way. He was an arrogant idiot to think otherwise. Itachi was too good to go through with it in the end but what if someone else tries and isn’t?

Next to him, Itachi is still obediently allowing Kakashi to hold him steady. His gaze is far away and he looks as ill as Kakashi feels, sheened with sweat and bruise-dark eyes lost. 

Kakashi’s grip loosens and his hand trembles. 

His voice is cracked and dry, “Is Shisui your second?”

The question takes a moment to register with Itachi but when it does he turns his head towards Kakashi and nods at a patch of moss by their knees. 

“...yes.”

Kakashi counts his exhales until his breathing is steadier. He swallows and firms his grip on Itachi’s nape. 

“Tenzou is mine. If-if he wants to be.”

They don’t move for a long moment. The sounds of returning wildlife louder than their breathing in their little clearing. 

Itachi finally looks at Kakashi, he meets his eyes searchingly. 

“I- _what?_ ”

Typically, the traditional packs are triads. An omega, a beta, and an alpha. It’s not unheard of to have different combinations nowadays but with Itachi as a clan heir and the responsibility of bearing future heirs any pack he leads, another alpha could be an issue. 

Itachi feels like he’s trying to drag his mind out of a swamp. He’s slow and dragging and none of this makes sense.

Kakashi watches him for a minute, then continues, “I’m also not going to be shut in some Uchiha house. You can do what you want, but I will be returning to the Hatake estate and you would be..welcome there. The pack would be...welcome there. And third, when this is over you and Shisui are going to tell us what the hell is happening.”

Itachi’s sleepwalking. 

It’s the only reasonable explanation. 

That or Kakashi hit him so hard over the head he must be seeing things. Itachi has no idea how long it takes him to process this. It feels like forever and no time at all lost in the calls of birds and the flutter of wings that he can’t see in the trees around them. 

It feels surreal to have Kakashi moving them both to the shelter of the largest tree in their clearing. Kakashi maneuvers Itachi into the curl of roots at their backs. The tangle that supports the giant tree they grappled in before. He hovers over Itachi’s thighs and his long calloused hands disappear under his own yukata at the junction of his legs. 

Even that doesn’t break the illusion until the smell of omega and _wet_ hits Itachi like a slap. 

Itachi gasps and stops breathing, eyes locked on Kakashi’s wrists, “What are you — ?”

Kakashi stills and looks at Itachi. His eyes veiled by pale eyelashes. “Itachi,” he says, “Do you not want me to? You can still say no.”

Itachi’s eyes bore into Kakashi’s. He still feels poleaxed. 

“I…”

Above him, Kakshi shifts his weight. His jaw rolls with tension and he sighs shakily, “I need an answer, Itachi. Do you want this still?”

“You’re...agreeing to this?” Itachi asks incredulously. 

Kakashi swallows and lifts his chin, “Yes, so long as you agree to my conditions.” Above him Kakashi hesitates. 

Itachi takes this in, already his bird-bright eyes flickering back and forth as he looks forward from here. “I...yes. Yes, I’m…” Itachi takes a deep breath and looks to Kakashi. “I still want this, if you do. And I agree to your conditions,” he says firmly. 

_Want is a strong word for both of us, but ‘in agreement’ maybe doesn't fit as well here._ Itachi thinks, too discombobulated to be hysterical yet. 

For answer, Kakshi moves carefully over Itachi, telegraphing his movements for him as he goes. 

Kakashi gathers himself and reaches for the tie of his yukata. It comes undone easily and it falls open naturally, revealing him to Itachi. Itachi felt his body earlier but it’s different being pressed against his captain’s back and wrestling with him and seeing Kakashi _like this_. 

He’s all smooth planes of muscle and bone, Anbu pale, scarred in silver and red filigree in sprays across his ribs and flanks. The only indication that he’s an omega is the slight curve to his waist and below that the swell of the vulva just visible behind his still soft cock.

Kakashi reaches up to his mask where it begins at his shoulders and throat and with a shaky breath he lifts it up and off his head. 

For this to be a binding mating they both need to be able to get to the glands on either side of the neck but somehow Itachi overlooked that detail earlier. 

Itachi is painfully aware that he is one of very few people to have ever seen Kakashi’s face now. 

Surprisingly, he just feels relieved. 

Anbu gossip like old women, especially to young operatives. It’s part of the dumb hazing when you have Kakashi as a captain. He’d half thought Kakashi would either be half-animal or inhumanly beautiful underneath that scrap of cotton. 

Kakashi is remarkably human. 

He’s handsome, Itachi can see that. His jaw is sharp and stern, his nose is straight. And like this the heavy lidded slant to his eyes becomes pensive and contemplative rather than sly. Itachi gets distracted by the beauty mark to the right of his lips. It's an unexpected detail. 

It’s a sweet punctuation mark at the end of the long scar that took his eye so long ago. 

When Kakashi opens his mouth, sipping at the air, maybe to filter the smell of them, Itachi can just see his teeth. They are noticeably sharper than most shinobi’s but no more than an Inuzuka’s. 

Itachi throat clicks when he swallows. 

“Kakashi, I…” he flushes, “I’ve never, uh...done this. I’m…”

Something flickers across Kakashi’s eyes and he nods. “I kinda figured,” he says and the corner of his mouth pulls up in a dry smile. “Here,” he says and reaches to take Itachi’s hands from where they’d been hovering to the side. 

Kakashi takes his hands and places them on his hips. He presses down until Itachi does it himself, pulling Kakashi in closer to him as he does. 

“You’re a fast learner, Itachi,” Kakashi says. His eyes are unreadable, “It’ll work out.”

With that, Kakashi tucks his nose into Itachi’s shoulder. He drops one hand back down his body and Itachi can feel him reaching into himself, his fingers tucked away and his wrist beginning to rock and flex between his legs and Itachi’s lower belly. 

The swell of Kakashi’s shoulder is right in front of Itachi. He buries his face there, cheek pressing into the muscle, his lips just barely brushing the delicate skin of Kakashi’s neck. He rubs his face there, back and forth until he can smell himself on Kakashi’s skin. 

When he pulls back to run his nose along the arch of Kakashi’s collarbone a rumble picks up in his ribs. THere’s something innately satisfying about this. They’ve hardly done anything and already Kakashi smells like he belongs with Itachi. 

There’s something about that thought that makes Itachi stall for a moment. _It feels…_

It disappears when Kakashi gasps in his ear, his entire body rocking up, pressing his stomach to Itachi’s, as he reaches something deeper inside himself. 

Trailing his nose along Kakashi’s neck now, Itachi opens Kakashi’s robe further, leaving it on his shoulders to help trap the heat of their bodies and to shield the omega’s back a little. He wraps his arms around Kakashi to run his palms up the flare of his ribs and around to his shoulder blades.

He jolts when Kakashi palms his cock through his own yukata, fishing him out and swiping across the head of him. When Kakashi immediately takes his hand, slick with precum, down to the root of his body, Itachi gasps into his throat like he’s been punched. 

Kakashi does it a few times, using spit and precum from Itachi to slick himself open a little more. Even with how much that makes all of the base parts of Itachi’s brain light up he does still know that it probably isn’t enough. 

Before Itachi can do much more than tense underneath him, Kakashi lowers himself onto Itachi.

His breath hitches and he grabs at Kakashi’s hips, helplessly as he just _feels_ the tight slide of Kakashi’s body. He breaches the first ring of muscle and once the head is in Kakashi slides down a few more inches. He makes it almost halfway before he tightens back up. It punches the air out of Kakashi’s lungs and he shivers above Itachi, thighs shaking, body tense and unyielding again against the intrusion. 

Kakashi makes a noise of frustration and tries to rock back up and can’t. 

Itachi can feel the way the aborted movement pulls at him _inside_ Kakashi’s body. 

Before Kakashi can just keep pushing them both, Itachi firms up his grip on his hips and holds him tight and still. 

“W-wait! Just —!”

Kakashi trembles against him. He’s breathing really heavily now that Itachi’s less focused on how amazing he feels. 

He’s also tightened up again beyond what feels good for either of them. 

Itachi holds him for a moment, squeezing his thighs and hips as he tries to think, gasping against Kakashi’s shoulder again.

Itachi tucks his head down and laves at the gland in front of him. Kakashi jolts in his hold a little, surprised. Itachi keeps going, gnawing at it, nipping, working at the skin until he can feel Kakashi’s belly pressing against his in time with his breathing as he works for bigger lungfuls of air. 

Itachi can smell both of them now. It’s all that he can take in, it’s overpowering in the best way. 

Better still is the way the attention has Kakashi moaning in Itachi’s ear. A bolt of heat moves through Itachi, settling in his hips, his spine. If Itachi can smell it, Kakashi with his intense sense of smell must be _really_ feeling it. 

Itachi ups his game. With Kakashi bracing his forearms on his shoulders, slumping against him, Itachi slides one hand along the crease of his thigh until he can trace gentle patterns along the skin where they’re joined.

Kakashi gasps and Itachi can feel the way that makes him ripple around him. 

_Wow._

He keeps his touch light, firm enough to not be a tease, but mindful of how sensitive Kakashi seems to be. Itachi frowns. It’s pretty dry down there. 

Kakashi shifts his grip, one hand tangling in Itachi’s loose ponytail to grip at his head. His hair starts to slip past its tie. It slides across his shoulders and begins to spill along the crease of Kakshi’s chest and armpit, clinging to the static under his arm. 

It must tickle because Kakashi jumps and shivers as it licks across the delicate skin. 

Itachi keeps working at Kakashi, laving at his glands at his neck and tracing along the folds of his body with spit slicked fingers. Once he hears Kakashi’s breathing speed up, feels the wetness beginning to spread, he takes a moment to mouth along Kakashi’s jawline, breathing him in.

Kakashi’s breathing hiccups and he flexes around Itachi with every gasp. 

The gentle attentive touches have opened Kakashi back up, slowly and steadily, and he sinks down another few inches. 

Itachi keeps it up, working Kakashi up and easing him down until he’s seated fully on his cock.

Kakashi can feel the full length of Itachi — hot and huge. _He’s not even that big,_ Kakashi thinks, exasperated. Tenzou’s got more girth but Kakashi never does things like this outside of his heats, not really. He feels split open across Itachi’s lap and he hates how it makes him sip at the air to avoid gasping like a fragile little virgin. 

And it’s still not enough to make this better. He’s shaking like a leaf on his _kouhai’s lap_ and he wishes this were easier. 

_Fuck._

Itachi drops his forehead to Kakashi’s shoulder and breathes hard against his clavicle. He’s a line of fire against his chest.

All Kakashi can focus on is the inescapable heat and pressure of it. He’s too hot. It burns. He’s so full and sensitive and it rubs raw against his insides, even after all of this. 

He must make some noise. Itachi lifts his face from Kakashi’s shoulder and his face is flushed, his long silky hair starting to cling and curl where his temples are beaded with sweat. 

His dazed eyes flicker over Kakashi’s exposed face. His gaze sharpens and some strange determination seems to slip into his touch. Itachi brings a hand up to Kakashi’s head and he tugs him in until his nose is digging right into Itachi’s gland on his throat. 

Kakashi has to gasp, panting, until Itachi pulls him back up and kisses him. He thrusts his tongue into Kakashi’s mouth and for someone who hasn’t done this before he must have had some detailed fantasies about kissing because he takes control of this kiss and he uses it against Kakashi ruthlessly. When they separate, gasping for breath, its never for long before Itachi pulls them back together. 

Kakashi's always had better olfactory senses than most. His sense of smell is fairly well known, but what most people don't seem to realize is it also makes him sensitive to taste. Itachi tastes of alpha, and youth, and that wiry unbending strength.

Itachi pulls him back in with tongue and lips and that grip on his hair. His other hand squeezes Kakashi’s ass, his fingers reaching down to play with the skin stretched around where he’s buried in Kakashi. 

The air is thin in Kakashi’s chest even before Itachi starts rumbling a little. Kakashi can feel the way his dick is starting to plump up a little. It’s not a knot, but he’s definitely growing into this, taking the available space as Kakashi stretches to give it to him. 

Kakashi has to drop his face into Itachi’s hair. 

He moans and gasps and he reflexively clenches around Itachi in spasms. With one hand on Kakashi’s back, Itachi takes the other and plays with Kakashi’s clit, hidden at the root of his penis. 

He’s whimpering into Itachi’s hair now, hips jerking as though his body can’t decide if it wants to get more of that touch or to get away. 

Itachi carries him the rest of the way, working him over until his nerve endings are all vibrating with sensory feedback. Kakashi comes with a spasm and a loud cry, shaking apart on Itachi’s lap. 

Itachi soothes him through it, petting his sides and running his fingers through his unruly hair.

He rumbles into Kakashi’s ear, nips along his jaw and the tendons in his neck. 

When Kakashi blinks the spots from his eyes it’s in time to for Itachi to kiss his shoulder and murmur, “There you are, you did so well, Kakashi. Shhh.”

Slumped against his kouhai, Kakashi can feel how much looser he is now. All his joints are warmed and buzzing with the orgasm that Itachi dragged out of him. 

_Gods._

As he pants and comes back down Itachi just holds him to his chest and waits. 

He’s still rock-hard inside Kakashi. He sits still and patient and waits for him. 

When he can move without wanting to scream with the overstimulation, Kakashi takes a deep breath and lifts himself up and down onto Itachi, rocking them together in earnest now.

Itachi’s hands fly to his hips. 

Kakashi can feel the crescents of his nails digging into his skin. 

It’s still a little raw, it’s still a lot, but his body is willing to take it now and they do. 

Kakashi is rolling his hips down onto Itachi, driving him deep when Tenzou and Shisui come flying back out of the woods, this time, Shisui being dragged by Tenzou.

Kakashi’s rhythm falters and he groans. 

When they see what’s happening, the unmistakable movement of Kakashi over Itachi, Tenzou makes a sound like he’s been punched in the diaphragm. He lurches forward, his usual grace lost. 

He snarls at Itachi, eyes wild, “How _could you?!_ '' It's not the rage in it that burns Itachi to the core. It’s the grief, the hurt in it, it burns with betrayal. 

Itachi cannot even begin to say anything. He did try what Tenzou is thinking. He tried to rape Kakashi and he knows it, he can’t say anything to Tenzou now. 

Any faltering rhythm they had well and truly lost, Kakashi stops, palms braced on Itachi’s shoulders hard enough to bruise. He turns his head, his jaw right at eye-level for Itachi, still clinging to his hips. 

Itachi can’t look away from the heaving skin of Kakashi’s stomach as he gasps for breath. “Tenzou,” he gasps, “I-it’s all right.” 

Itachi has a front row seat to the way Kakashi’s throat bobs as he swallows, “I-Tenzou, Tenzou I-I said yes,” he says, helplessly. 

Something truly wooden crawls across Tenzou’s expression. 

Kakashi’s body shivers against Itachi and he reaches for Tenzou. His scent goes sharp and sour with upset. 

Itachi whines into Kakashi’s neck, butting his head against the tender skin of his jaw, trying to appease his omega. It makes Kakashi slump a little more on Itachi, leaning into him to hold him upright. 

“N-Tenzou, come here? Please?”

Itachi keeps his head in the crook of Kakashi’s neck and tries not to pout like his hormones want him too. 

He almost thinks Tenzou will walk away, will leave Kakashi with his alpha. He doesn’t. Tenzou buckles to Kakashi as he usually does. He kneels beside them, looking only at Kakashi’s face, ignoring Itachi resolutely. This close Itachi can smell him, he’s spice and green cedar beneath that and it has the hair on Itachi’s neck prickling. He has to turn his head away and bury his nose in Kakashi’s throat to shove the building growl down. 

_Fuck._

Kakashi puts a hand on Tenzou’s face and runs his thumb along his cheek, “Tenzou, I agreed, I didn’t just...would you be my second in this?” he asks hoarsely. “Please?”

Itachi can’t help it, he tilts his head to see Tenzou’s expression.

Tenzou looks like he feels as stunned as Itachi was when Kakashi offered this. 

He stares at Kakashi, his deep brown eyes bottomless. He touches his nose to Kakashi’s and they brush against one another, back and forth. Finally he takes a deep breath and presses a kiss to Kakashi’s forehead. Following it up with a kiss. 

Itachi prickles, alpha hind-brain clamoring with discontent. He can’t help but grumble into Kakashi’s skin.

“Yes,” Tenzou agrees and looks to Itachi before looking back to Kakashi. He tries to smile. It’s a tight, wan thing. 

“You’d better make it official then,” he says, rubbing his thumb along Kakashi’s gland opposite of Itachi.

With a sigh, Tenzou backs up, watching Itachi closely as he stands with Shisui. 

Itachi can’t tell if he’s stuck now because he’s mortified at the whole situation and feeling awkward with how clearly close Tenzou and Kakashi are, or if his alpha brain is still so irritated with the nerve of another alpha getting in this close to Kakashi. 

Kakashi takes care of it for them both. He takes itachi’s face in his hands and leans their foreheads together. 

“Come on. We can do this.”

With Kakashi leading they slowly climb back up to their rhythm of before. 

It’s amazing. 

Kakashi is incredibly tight and blazing hot. It’s amazing, it’s lighting a fire at the base of Itachi’s spine and he ducks back down to Kakashi’s throat.

As he crests, he sinks his teeth into the transition between neck and shoulder. It’s a rush of heat through his body, it lights up behind his eyes and the taste of Kakashi in his mouth feels _right_. 

Itachi can hear Kakashi’s voice break in his ear as he clamps down on him, body rolling to keep him deep as he goes over the edge after him. A second later Kakashi’s sharp incisors bite Itachi’s gland.

  


...

  


They take a minute, Itachi grumbling in the back of his throat and still wrapped around Kakashi; Kakashi gasping wetly into his ear and mewling quietly as Itachi’s half-formed knot stretches him tight where they’re joined. 

When they do separate, Itachi lays Kakashi down gently, and drapes the yukata back over him to preserve any modesty they have left. As he moves to curl around his mate Shisui is there, butting into his side, catching his lips in kisses and moving Itachi to rest against the tree behind them just to the side of Kakashi.

He pulls Itachi in and scents him thoroughly, running his hands through Itachi’s now tangled hair until he stops rumbling. 

By the time Itachi can focus back on what’s happening around him, his brain full of buzzing sated hormones and satisfied alpha nonsense, Kakashi has been maneuvered to lie on his back on the mossy ground at Itachi’s hip, with Shisui between his thighs. 

Shisui grips Itachi’s knee with one hand and Kakashi’s hip in another. He takes his time to be soft and tender with their omega, moving slowly, rolling his hips in an easy rocking motion that has Kakashi moving back into him. Kakashi shivers and arches up beneath him and hides his face when Shisui bites him too before he finishes marking Shisui’s shoulder as well. 

Kakashi’s thighs fall away from Shisui’s hips and he gasps, sprawled underneath him. 

Shisui kisses along Kakashi’s heaving chest, his cheeks, his lips, and rubs his palms in big grounding sweeps along his sides until he settles. 

Finally, Shisui casts a look up to Itachi, his alpha now. He grins at him and Itachi fixates on the red of his teeth, Kakashi’s blood still staining them pink.

He’s seen Shisui covered with blood several times but he’s never seen him like this. Itachi watches Shisui crawl towards him, grin wide and toothy, licking the stains from his lips a self-satisfied sway to his hips. 

Behind him, Tenzou moves in, leaning over Kakashi. 

Even with all the hormones addling him Itachi can tell that these two have done this before in other circumstances. It’s evident in the way that Kakashi allows Tenzou to settle over him, his entire back a wall of defense and a shelter from prying eyes. It’s there in the way that Kakashi turns his face to Tenzou’s like a flower seeking sunlight.

It’s there in the way that Tenzou rests his forehead on Kakashi’s and just breathes him in, still and silent. 

Itachi’s growl rumbles deep in his throat again when Shisui clambers into his space. Like a lot of things in life, Shisui doesn’t take no for an answer, pushing and nudging until they’re pressed together from hips to chest and Itachi can’t wiggle out of it without throwing Shisui off. He takes Itachi’s attention away from Kakashi and Tenzou, distracts his alpha brain with cuddles and wet messy kisses to his lips and cheeks and ears, and grinding down on him. By the time Shisui gets them both to come again, Itachi is too lost in him to even remember Tenzou.

When he comes back to himself, Itachi can see Tenzou is still moving careful and steady in Kakashi. He hasn’t knotted him but he is working Kakashi up and through another orgasm. 

Itachi has to look away before they finish.

It’s not a bad thing. Really, he’s more relieved. With four of them together now this may succeed for more than just his own desperate bid for time. There may be enough between the four of them for this to be real. 

They have a chance now. 

He listens to the sounds of Kakashi’s wrung out gasps and overwrought cries as Tenzou brings him to completion for the fourth time in little more than a couple of hours. 

The air is filled with the smell of what they’ve done here and it settles in his veins even as the bites in his shoulder begin to clot and throb in earnest.

  


…

  


When they return, Itachi cedes Kakashi’s limp body to Tenzou’s arms, despite the way that makes him want to reach out and stake his claim. 

Tenzou carries Kakashi through the woods with a level of care that soothes and rankles Itachi equally. But with Shisui still holding his hand it’s easier to know that for the bullshit territorial instinct that it is. 

He couldn’t survive any of this without Shisui at his side. He would have broken already. He can hardly begrudge Kakashi the same support in Tenzou. 

When they return to the gate to register their pack Kakashi wears two haoris across his shoulders, Tenzou’s earthy greens tied beneath as an underlayer, Itachi’s blue with the Uchiha Fan emblazoned on the the back, and Shisui’s obi to tie them together.


End file.
